


Sokka: The Owner of the Last Braincell

by CobaltCephalopod



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27302998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltCephalopod/pseuds/CobaltCephalopod
Summary: "There were a lot of things that Sokka had found hard to believe over the course of his life. One was when his sister had ended up being the reason for his nosebleeds, instead of normal-ass allergies like their father had first thought. Another was when he found out that the badass elemental moonlighting (pun intended, Sokka knew what he was doing) in their borough of the city also happened to be his sister, with a name like the Painted Lady of all things.This new nigh-unbelievable thing came pretty close to topping the list."Or: Sokka can't believe he ended up friends with so many people who have superhero-cool names and he can't think of one for himself.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12
Collections: ATLA Big Bang 2020





	Sokka: The Owner of the Last Braincell

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the [Avatar Big Bang 2020](https://atla-bigbang.tumblr.com/) and I had the amazing wingdingsandpurplethings as my artist partner, check out her amazing [graphic](https://wingsdingsandpurplethings.tumblr.com/post/633523137660829696/this-is-my-art-for-squidpro-quos-amazing-fic) for the story here!

There were a lot of things that Sokka had found hard to believe over the course of his life. One was when his sister had ended up being the reason for his nosebleeds, instead of normal-ass allergies like their father had first thought. Another was when he found out that the badass elemental moonlighting (pun intended, Sokka knew what he was doing) in their borough of the city also happened to be his sister, with a name like the Painted Lady of all things. 

This new nigh-unbelievable thing came pretty close to topping the list. 

“Isn’t that the art major from that elective class you were forced to take last semester?” he asked, pointing at the prone figure collapsed in the alley only a few blocks from their apartment. “The one with the koi tattoo you said you couldn’t stop starin—”

“It’s Aang!”

His innocent question was stifled as Katara stepped on his foot on her way over to the guy, already rooting around in her purse. Sokka stepped into the alley, keeping an eye out ahead and behind them in case whoever was responsible was still lurking around or, even worse, someone saw what Katara was doing and did a little basic math. 

Crouched beside this ‘Aang’, Katara positioned her hands over his head without touching him and started to work her ‘magic’, as Sokka usually called it. He’d never quite understood how it worked or what the science behind it was, probably because there was none, but he knew that Aang would probably wake up with a killer headache and nothing else would be worse for the wear. If it was something Katara could fix, that was. 

“How’s he looking?” he muttered over his shoulder. Sokka leaned up against the wall and stared at his phone, the directions to the nearest hospital pulled up just in case. Katara might be great at what she did, but non-superpowered doctors could still be rather helpful. 

“I don’t know. I can’t feel anything wrong with him, but it’s like he’s more than unconscious.”

“You can’t just make all the blood rush to his brain or something?” 

“Sokka! That’s not how it works, and besides everything’s working normally…” She trailed off as a low groan sounded from beside Sokka’s feet and he looked down, only to be met with that aforementioned third hard-to-believe thing. 

The kid was glowing internally. Like, so much so, that it was leaking out of his eyes and his mouth was just a glowing hole and Sokka didn’t want to bring up the question of radioactivity, but it was definitely on the table with how much glowing was going on. 

“He looks like he swallowed too many glowsticks. What did you do to him, Kat?” 

“I—” Looking uncertanly down at her own hands, Katara finally touched Aang’s shoulder and tried to check his pupils. Of which there were none, but Sokka had to commend his sister on trying. 

“Don’t go blind from that.” 

“Stop being ridiculous and help!” Scooping up Aang’s slighter frame, she pulled the hood of his sweatshirt down to help hide the conspicuously glowing orifices on his face. 

Sokka sighed, knowing what she was going to suggest before she even said it. “We can’t hide him in our apartment, Katara, I’m pretty sure that would be kidnapping of one form or another. He should go, I don’t know, get his lights checked or something.” 

Her unimpressed look told him everything and he sighed. The same reason they couldn’t take Aang to the hospital was the same reason Katara had had to deal with her ‘growing pains’ herself when she’d first found out about it. Nobody knew what to do with supernatural internal bleeding, just as they wouldn’t know how the hell to deal with weird Mr. Radioactive here. 

“Fine, but at least let me go get my bike.” He pointed in the general direction of their apartment, silently calculating how long it would take for him to run there and come back. “We can stick him on the back, put a helmet on him, and nobody will know any better.”

The look on her face suggested she was going to argue with him but finally she nodded. 

Sokka took off running, his thoughts going even faster than his feet on the topic of all the implications and complications that the entire incident had. Was Aang in a magical glowing coma? What if he turned out to be a super villain? That thought gave him a chuckle, pausing for a quick breath at the corner before jayrunning the rest of the way to their building. 

The idea that the guy Katara had described as a vegetarian, pacifist protester of an art nerd who had only one possibly threatening thing in his entire life, could be a supervillain was so laughably out of the realm of possibility that Sokka would gladly shave his wolf tail off if it turned out to be true. 

His motorbike was resting where he’d put it yesterday in the garage, the jury-rigged police scanner and signal jammer built into the chassis thankfully none the worse for wear after their close call last night. It would need a little tender loving care, it always did, especially now that he had an idea to install black lights on it. For what purpose, he wasn’t entirely sure yet but there had to be some use to them, even if just in finding blood splatters or otherwise. Although on second thought, Katara could probably do that h—

He needed to get back to her and their glowing semi-hostage, the plans could wait until later. Checking that he had an extra helmet, Sokka started the engine and put thoughts of improvements out of mind. 

When he inched the motorbike into the alley, he was surprised to find Aang sitting up with less laser eyes going on. 

“Katara! You couldn’t have texted?” 

“I forgot.” She didn’t look at all sheepish about the brazen admittance and Sokka sighed as he drew alongside them and appraised Aang again now that he was moving of his own volition. 

“What happened? Where’d your glowing tats go?” He gestured to his own forehead. 

Aang sat hunched against the brick wall and grinned when he saw the motorbike’s approach. His eyes were back to a steel grey that Sokka assumed was his normal color and his mouth certainly didn’t suffer any damage from the way he started talking. 

“Woah, can I ride it? Does it have a name? I know some people like to name their cool bikes and this one definitely deserves a name. Are you Katara’s brother? She said you were way sillier than you look. Is it true that you hotwired the toaster when you were a kid and it sings when you make pancakes with it?” 

“Aang, slow down, what were you doing before you collapsed? Do you remember?” 

“I don’t know, I was just up on the roof taking pictures.” Aang shrugged, his gaze inevitably ending up on the bike instead of looking at them. If Sokka had known him a little better, he might have said it was purposeful evasion. 

“You don’t know.” Sighing, he steepled his fingers and tried to mentally prepare himself for the Talk. “Aang, I don’t want to freak you out. More than you already are about my bike. But I think you have superpowers.” 

The revelation did not go down how he’d thought it would. Aang blinked up at him and finally held his gaze before nodding, unsurprised. 

“Yeah, I know.” 

“So you  _ do  _ know! Then what was the glowy shit going on with your face!?” He’d never felt so much like he was trying to ask a golden retriever to pay attention when there was a ball to chase.

“I don’t glow. I’m not possessed. I just float.” 

“You just float.” Never had the handlebars of his bike looked like the best place to bang his head, until now. 

“Yeah, like this!” And he was floating. On nothing at all, just cross-legged in the air, bobbing slightly up and down. Sokka could feel the wind against his ankles, swirling around them in the cramped confines of the alley but there was nothing to show for it underneath Aang’s baggy pants except for the candy wrappers and crumpled receipts that were swept along for the ride. 

“Oh-kay, that answers that.” He glanced over his shoulder towards the street, moving to the side as a businesswoman strode into view but she looked too absorbed in her bluetooth for him to have even bothered. “Alright, that’s a neat trick.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Aang interrupted, dropping into a crouch so fast Sokka wondered if he’d hit terminal velocity on the way down.

As Aang began poking around in the cracks of the concrete for what appeared to be dirty pebbles, Sokka met Katara’s gaze over his head and knew she was on the same page. Sometimes having a sibling really was the best thing in the world. Always someone to have your back. 

“Did you learn to do that on your own? I haven’t met any other elementals in town before, do you know anyone else like that?” 

Or maybe not. Sokka slashed a hand in front of his throat, wishing he could stop Katara from talking with his glare but alas, he wasn’t the one with abilities here. They were supposed to be subtle! Secretive, even. Sure, Aang didn’t seem like the type of person a supervillain would even hire, let alone be, but they hadn’t survived this long by sticking their noses into others’ business. 

“You’re an elemental too?” Aang perked up, a pebble slipping out of his grasp in his excitement. “What kind? My grandfather was one, but I haven’t met any in this city yet.” 

Before Katara could start acting on the glint in her eye, Sokka made a strategic retreat. 

“You know what, do you want to come to our place, Aang? You and Katara can catch up, I can fix Boomerang and no one gets caught by the Firelord.” He patted the bike, offering Aang the helmet and trying not to think about how much they were exposing themselves. “Everybody wins.” 

He hadn’t felt so relieved when Aang took the helmet and Katara took his since he passed his magnetostatics exam. They could deal with the clusterfuck of a situation at home, the other two occupied while he did a little research into the last time an elemental started glowing. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be updating every few days with the rest of the story, as time allows me. I'm also on [tumblr](https://squidpro-quo.tumblr.com/) so if you have any thoughts or prompts, let me know!


End file.
